The vast majority of Chicago bike tickets still go to cyclists in black neighborhoods, despite past criticism by community and cycling advocates that enforcement is uneven across the city.

In 2017, about 56 percent of all bike tickets were issued in majority black neighborhoods, compared with 24 percent in Latino neighborhoods and 18 percent in white neighborhoods, according to Chicago police statistics. Blacks, Latinos and whites each make up about a third of the city’s residents, according to the U.S. Census.

A Tribune story last year found similar results between 2008 and 2016. Nine out of ten tickets are for biking on the sidewalk.

The new numbers, obtained through a public records request, also show that while the enforcement pattern has not changed, overall tickets are down by 14 percent. The city said last June that police efforts under its new “Vision Zero” traffic safety plan, which includes cycling, will focus on education in high crash areas and not use increased tickets to measure success. The city has been trying to promote cycling in black and Latino neighborhoods in recent years by adding more bike lanes and a major expansion in Divvy ride-share stations.

“It is disappointing,” said Ald. Christopher Taliaferro, 29th, regarding the high number of tickets in black areas. Taliaferro is a former police sergeant whose ward includes part of Austin, a majority-black neighborhood that saw the city’s second highest number of bike tickets. “I look at it as a very minor offense, and I would really like to see our efforts going toward reducing violent offenses in our ward.”

Some communities that saw high numbers of bike tickets, such as Austin and North Lawndale, are also disproportionately affected by severe traffic crashes, according to the city’s transportation department. Six of the city’s seven 2017 bike fatalities occurred on the South and West sides. Chicago police department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said police are trying to reduce serious or fatal traffic injuries.

“Chicago police officers work with residents to identify areas where bicyclist and vehicular safety is an issue of community concern, and then enforce traffic and safety laws,” said Guglielmi in an emailed statement. “That stems from our commitment to safeguard all Chicagoans, and create the safest environment possible for pedestrian, vehicular and bicycle traffic.”

The differences among neighborhoods are extreme — the majority-black and low-income community of North Lawndale had the most bike tickets, with 397, while just five tickets were issued in majority-white and affluent Lincoln Park, where cycling is very popular. Overall, police gave out 3,577 bike citations last year, a 14 percent drop from 4,158 in 2016.

The top 10 neighborhoods for bike citations include four majority-black, four Latino and two white neighborhoods. After North Lawndale comes Austin with 264; South Chicago, 241; Humboldt Park, 232; South Shore, 190; South Lawndale, 139; Uptown, 138; Chicago Lawn, 133; New City, 128; and West Town, 127.

Sidewalks and safety

The higher number of tickets in some South and West side areas may be the result, in part, of insufficient bike infrastructure such as bike lanes. And that may prompt cyclists to use the sidewalk to avoid car and truck traffic, some bike advocates say.

“To be ticketing people on the sidewalk where I imagine they feel they’re the safest is not fair when they don’t have the infrastructure to support biking on the roads,” said Charles Brown, senior researcher and adjunct professor at the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at New Jersey’s Rutgers University.

Albert Lattimore, 49, who is black, has been ticketed twice for riding on the sidewalk — once in 2012 and again last December, according to police and court records. During the most recent stop, Lattimore was on the 300 block of East 47th Street in the Bronzeville neighborhood.

“I was on a dangerous stretch of road, and they knew it,” said Lattimore, a home health care worker. “You feel safer on the sidewalk.”

Some bike advocates have expressed concern that police are ticketing cyclists in black, impoverished communities while not citing law-breaking cyclists in white areas. A bike citation is an administrative, not a criminal, violation and carries a fine that generally ranges from $50 to $200.

“(I’m) confident this type of enforcement strategy in predominantly black and brown neighborhoods on the South Side and West Side is racial profiling under a new name, being used as subtext to stop people to check for warrants and search people for guns and drugs,” said Olatunji Oboi Reed, president of Equiticity, a nonprofit that promotes transportation equity.

The Active Transportation Alliance, an organization that promotes cycling, walking and transit, noted that in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, many people must rely on bikes to get around while dealing with unsafe streets.

“The disparity in where these tickets are being issued strongly suggests they are not primarily about improving traffic safety, which is deeply troubling,” said Jim Merrell, campaign director for the alliance.

Leroy Ricks, who owns the Bike Clinic on East 71st Street in the South Shore neighborhood, said customers frequently complain about getting stopped for riding on the sidewalk.

“I guess technically they’re breaking the law, but it seems like there’s more to it than that — it seems like they’re being harassed,” said Ricks, who is black. He said police may be trying to move people off street corners to fight crime.

“You’re hassling people who could potentially help you with crime prevention,” said Maria Barnes, owner of Uptown Bikes.

Uptown, a mostly white neighborhood, was the site of a “hot spot” for bike tickets over the past two years around Wilson and Kenmore avenues, according to an analysis of police data. Barnes suspects cyclists were riding on sidewalks because of the just-finished construction project at the Wilson CTA station.

Bike education

Lack of knowledge about bike rules may also be a factor, bike advocates said. Biking on the sidewalk is prohibited in Chicago for anyone 12 or older, though many other Illinois communities allow it. The city’s enforcement of bike violations has shot up in the past decade, from 355 in 2009 to a high of 4,396 in 2014.

“I think people just need to not ride on the sidewalk, first of all,” said Curtiss Willaby, 27, who works for West Town Bikes in Humboldt Park. “I think education could help. Still, people are going to do what they want to do.”

Willaby, who is black, said two black officers stopped him at Chicago and Campbell avenues last October for mounting his bike on a sidewalk, though he was about to take it onto the road. As police questioned him, a white cyclist went by on the sidewalk and was not stopped. Willaby said he did not feel profiled and did not get a ticket.

Ricks cautions his customers to avoid trouble and never ride on sidewalks. He hands out pamphlets explaining bike laws in his store.

“I try to avoid problems,” Ricks said. “I get myself in the street. … I can’t do what white people do without having some kind of repercussion.”

It is possible that because there are more police patrolling high-crime areas, there are more chances to see unlawful biking and issue tickets, criminologist James Alan Fox of Northeastern University in Boston told the Tribune. Reckless biking could also be seen as falling under the “broken windows” theory of law enforcement, which holds that graffiti and other signs of disorder give the appearance that no one cares and that addressing such issues can reduce crime.

However, the practice of targeting minor offenses has been criticized for possibly leading to distrust between police and community residents, which can hurt crime-fighting.

Last June, the city announced its “Vision Zero” program to focus on eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries. The program has focused on high-crash neighborhoods.

Some “Vision Zero” outreach may be making a difference. Consider: While the Austin neighborhood, which counts a lot of serious crashes, saw the second highest number of bike tickets issued citywide, the number has dropped 37 percent between 2016 and 2017 when 417 and 264 tickets were issued, respectively. Ald. Taliaferro credited “Vision Zero” with educating residents about traffic and bike safety, and he hopes this will bring citations down this year, too.

“The more you provide the opportunity for cyclists to safely travel on the streets, you’re keeping them off the sidewalks,” Taliaferro said.

Via expansion

Via, which competes with Uber and Lyft in offering ride-sharing, has expanded to the city’s northern border and now covers the neighborhoods of Rogers Park, West Ridge, Peterson Park and Edgewater.

The New York-based company, which entered Chicago in November 2015, has been gradually expanding, said Alex Lavoie, U.S. general manager for Via. It now covers 38 square miles, to the Stevenson Expressway on the south, Howard Street on the north and Western Avenue on the west, though it runs a bit farther west in some areas.

Rides to and from the new zones will be a flat $3.95 this week, Lavoie said. Fares usually depend on how far a passenger is going.

The ride-share business in Chicago is exploding — the Tribune reported this month that the number of vehicles that provide four or more ride-share trips a month almost quadrupled over the past three years, from 15,078 in March 2015 to 68,832 in December 2017, according to city data. This has raised concerns about whether ride-share contributes to congestion and hurts public transit.

Lavoie said Via rides are primarily shared with other passengers, and he feels Via is “very much a part of the solution to congestion.”

Transportation song quiz

Last week’s transportation song is about something that happened while waiting in line for transit, or as they say across the pond, “beginning in a queue.” The song is “Bus Stop,” a hit for The Hollies. Bob Edgren of Albany Park was the first with the right answer.

This week’s transportation song, suggested by reader Jerome Yanoff, is about a guy who wants to take his girl for a ride in a uniquely modern vehicle. It’s a favorite of both Rose Bukater and Mr. Burns. What’s the song? The winner will get a Tribune notebook, and glory.